i currently have 2 drives on my computer C & D which both have Win XP installed on them. i would like to format my C drive and use it as a storage space for my impt stuff while booting the comptuer from the D drive. problem is that windows recognizes the C drive as a system volume and won't let me format it (i used the diskmgmt utility that came with XP). i also can't format the drive in DOS becos it is a NTFS drive. can someone pls help??

If each drive is bootable then open up the pc and swap the drives on the cable. You will have to change the master/slave jumpers on each drive also. But understand that C drive is always the boot drive for xp(default) and it is possible that the boot record of your D drive may be corrupted and will not boot when swapped. What is wrong with using the current c drive and formating d for storage? IN THE MATTERS OF STYLE, swim with the current; in matters of principle, STAND LIKE A ROCK

Your C: drive is the active drive (system drive) and as such it contains all the boot files and the MBR. If you format it your system will become unbootable. If you want to transfer to using the D: drive that do what lurkswithin has suggested. You may need to copy across your boot files and use the recovery console to fix the MBR using FIXMBR and maybe even FIXBOOT once you have transferred your D: drive to the C: drive. ___________________________________________ ☺ When everything else fails, read the instructions.